Marilyn and the ‘Hollywood Liars’

Hollywood Menteur (or Hollywood Liar) is a new comic book inspired by The Misfits, from the French cartoonist Luz. As you may recall, a despairing Marilyn calls her cowboy friends ‘liars’ during her furious speech in the desert. It’s also the subject of an exhibition in Paris, as Jacques LeRoux tells Marilyn Remembered.

“Today in Paris, I stumbled by accident on the new show at Huberty Breyne Gallery (specialist in Comics Art). It’s the first show ever of caricaturist Luz, who just released his latest comic book … The exhibition presents the original comic strips for show and sale.

You might not have heard about Luz but here in France he is very well know because of his provocative Charlie Hebdo covers and because he is one of the few survivors of the January 7, 2015 terrorist attack and killings at Charlie Hebdo. Shortly after the attack, he decided to quit his work as a newspaper caricaturist and receded into anonymity, guarded 24/7 by government security agents.

Today, I started chatting with the gallery’s owner who told me Luz was at the opening of the show last Thursday (he came heavily guarded, what a life…) and when asked : ‘Why Marilyn?’, he said he became obsessed by Marilyn and The Misfits shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Watching the movie again and later reading all he could about its stars and the filming, he felt he could relate to the anguish and pain Marilyn was going through at the time (and that himself still goes through, for a whole different reason). And that he felt in love with her all over again.

Hollywood Menteur shows a very violent and disturbing image of Marilyn (and Monty, and Clark, and John…). Marilyn is a woman fighting for her own survival among a team of colleagues, some of them also on their way to extinction. Luz did not want to draw Marilyn in a realistic way but as a metaphor for fright and anger. Just what Luz still feels, 4 years after the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Isn’t it intriguing and moving that Luz found in a screaming Marilyn Monroe his own way of expressing his frustration over the ordeal he went through on that dreadful day at Charlie Hebdo?

One room in the show is all devoted to 8 expressionist portraits of Marilyn. Blood red.

Very intense and powerful stuff indeed…”

Marilyn Book News: Comic Confidential

Hot off the press, Marilyn’s Monsters is a graphic novel by Tommy Redolfi which retells her story as a dark fairytale. Now available with a preface by cult filmmaker David Cronenberg, it was previously published in France as Marilyn in Holy Wood.  You can find out more and view sample pages here.

Also just published, Samantha Barbas’ Confidential Confidential looks at the forces behind the notorious scandal magazine which exposed the secrets of Marilyn and other 1950s stars.

A new photo book set for release next month, Marilyn: Lost Images From the Hollywood Photo Archive  includes images from the collection of publicist Colin Slater, with text by Boze Hadleigh, who recently authored Marilyn Forever, a book of quotes about the star from celebrities past and present. More info on the archive here.

Also due in October is Rockhaven Sanitarium, a history of the pioneering women’s psychiatric clinic where Marilyn’s mother Gladys lived for almost fifteen years, authored by LA Woman Tours boss (and friend of this blog) Elisa Jordan. (You can read more about Rockhaven’s history here.)

Marilyn in Holy Wood: A Graphic Novel

Holy Wood : Portrait fantasmé de Marilyn Monroe, a new graphic novel, has been published in France. In an interview with Le Dauphine, author Tommy Redolfi reveals that he spent nine years creating this Gothic fairytale set in ‘Holy Wood’, a dark forest populated by circus freaks where a young dreamer called Norma Jeane seeks fame and fortune.

“I think she adhered to an image proposed to her. She was told: ‘If you’re like that, people will love you.’ So she agreed to be that person to be loved. She lacked love and recognition. That’s what she was looking for and that’s what we gave him, but not necessarily for the best reasons. She a little pact with the devil, although in this case, the devil is not really bad. And besides it is this ambiguity which I like. There are not really nice, not really bad … In the end, maybe it was just the wrong choice …”